The time has come to start the bracket play portion of our Mech Madness tournament! Above you can see the full setup, Heroes on the left and Villains on the right. Forum members should step right this way and vote in each of the head to head polls. Each round will knock out half the field so every vote counts. These polls will be open for three days then the bracket will be updated and the next round will go up on Saturday. Good luck everyone!
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Permalink: http://www.fbtb.net/2012/11/13/mech-madness-2012-round-of-32-started/

^^ I can't stand this kind of commentary. Why do people feel the need to state that they think some entry or another is going to get beat, or why they voted for this moc or not? Just place your votes and see what happens!

Chief wrote:^^ I can't stand this kind of commentary. Why do people feel the need to state that they think some entry or another is going to get beat, or why they voted for this moc or not? Just place your votes and see what happens!

Ditto. While winning is great, the most important part is how satisfied each individual builder is with their final product. I poured my heart, soul, sweat, and many many long hours into my mech - and was overjoyed to behold the finished product.

I hope our newer members will adjust their posts and behavior to be more in-line with the spirit of the FBTB forum.

etcknight wrote:I hope our newer members will adjust their posts and behavior to be more in-line with the spirit of the FBTB forum.

I'm new to the contest this year, and I agree with you. I am just happy to be chosen to be in the tourney at all. I also think people should not be voicing their negative opinions (or positive for that matter) regarding voting in the contest. At the most maybe some encouraging words, but lets be honest this isn't a presidential race, no need to try to campaign others for your favorite. Just everyone have fun, be fair, and let the best mech win.

Ultron32 wrote:Poor Doc ock and Bizarro. Theyr'e going to get crushed, based on their opponents. No offense.

Mister Ed wrote:I'm hoping to see some upsets here (and not just because I'll need one to proceed ). Upsets always make these things more interesting...

Upsets can happen. You never know.

In fairness: upsets are very unlikely to happen. Looking at last year's contest, the four spaceships that received the most votes in the first "regional" stage of voting, came in first, second, third and then fourth. In the exact order that the initial voting would have suggested.

Voting this year has been staggering. But of the (presumably) 144 people voting in the "villains" round, 106 and 97 voted for the two mechs that made seeds 1 and 2, compared to 18 and 15 votes for mechs 7 and 8.

So upsets could happen: but it would mean over two thirds of the electorate changing their mind, based on no new information.

Chief wrote:^^ I can't stand this kind of commentary. Why do people feel the need to state that they think some entry or another is going to get beat, or why they voted for this moc or not? Just place your votes and see what happens!

Now I don't know much about the hierarchy of the mods, but this seems a bit harsh Chief: I don't think they were hoping for a particular entry to be beaten, just that maybe something unexpected could be exciting.

In my view, I think a tournament style competition needs to factor something else in in subsequent rounds to make it more possible for the underdog to snatch success

I think the competition missed a trick here: "secret crisis" could have been exactly that: make a rule to only allow builders to reveal the three photos at the beginning maybe, and then get them to publish a new photo in each round maybe: focusing on, i don't know, ranged weapons, or close combat, or how the things fly or whatever.Or: stick something in each round that refers back to that build up story: ask voters which mech would cope with such and such new scenario.

Whatever. What do I know- I had an absolute blast making my first ever mech that I was really really proud of and only 8 of those 144 people thought it was in their top five! Has it made me less proud of what I made? not a bit of it. Do i like the ones i voted for less than mine? no way! That stuff rocked!

I'm super impressed with loads of what I've seen (and seen, and seen and seen), and hope that FBTB can long continue to come up with these ideas, and that the rest of us can keep on having fun and trying new and exciting things.

captain sambuca wrote:In fairness: upsets are very unlikely to happen.

Or: stick something in each round that refers back to that build up story: ask voters which mech would cope with such and such new scenario.

First to address that second sentence I quoted, people have suggested that in the past; for each round to focus on a particular part of the build. I think it's been general consensus that this wouldn't work out well because some of the better builds (overall) might be eliminated in an early round just because there is one tiny aspect which isn't perfect; i think a lot of it would come down to luck and who you happened to be paired up with each round.

On upsets: yes the initial voting is a decent indicator on what might happen, but there have been many upsets in the past (Wings of Justice, as of recent, where the top ship in the initial round did not get first place). There's a different dynamic when voting for your five favorites; for every person who voted for both mechs (or neither mech) in a given match-up, we have no idea who they will vote for in the contest. So especially when we get to the top 8 mechs or so, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see upsets.

Chief wrote:^^ I can't stand this kind of commentary. Why do people feel the need to state that they think some entry or another is going to get beat, or why they voted for this moc or not? Just place your votes and see what happens!

i like the idea of introducing some new element in each round of the tournament. we've tried something similar before with our podracer contests and random events between laps. i'll have to give it some more thought for next year's tournament. i think it could prove to be quite interesting.

onions wrote:i like the idea of introducing some new element in each round of the tournament. we've tried something similar before with our podracer contests and random events between laps. i'll have to give it some more thought for next year's tournament. i think it could prove to be quite interesting.

P.S.Since certain people <cough, cough> seem inclined to continue to voice their opinions no matter what, I'm going to put my vote into the complete opposite camp of these nay-sayers - just to even the odds and chances of an upset. Everyone loves an underdog, right?